DIY - Paint correction

[Kenshin X]

Disclaimer: Neither TOCAU or I will take responsibility if you damage your cars paint in anyway following this guide. If you are not or think you are not competent, just leave it to the professionals. This guide is intended for people who are willing to save a bit of dosh doing their cars.

Guys and girls: Sick of your factory paint/full respray having a lot of orange peel? Some careless idiot scratched your car on the way to work? Well this guide is for you.

In my case, I’m correcting orange peel as my car has been fully resprayed but this guide can be applied to light scratches that your usual scratch X or equivalent polish doesn’t come off by hand.

Things you need:

1x Paint thickness measuring tool (or just get it measured at any automotive paint store)

1x SPEED ADJUSTABLE rotary buffer

1x Compound/Cutting Pad

1x Finishing polishing Pad

1x Bucket of clean fresh water with a bit of car wash formula

10x Sheets of 2000 Grit Wet/Dry Sandpaper

10x Sheets of 2500 Wet/Dry Grit Sandpaper

10x Sheets of 3000 Wet/Dry Grit Sandpaper

1x Sanding block

Few Cotton/Terry Towel Rags

Autoglym 02B Cutting Polish (or equivalent) or whichever polish that would take out the 3000 grit sandpaper scratches well.

Meguilars Scratch X 2.0

Meguilars Carnauba Wax (or equivalent)

Applicator Pads

3M Blue Scotch Tape (expensive S%#T)

1. Read the Disclaimer
   
2. BEFORE you start on anything make sure you have enough clear coat on the cars before you start this guide. The worse thing is that you don’t have enough clear coat and you end up sanding past the clear coat to the base coat. Then its GG for you and you will fork out money to repaint the whole section. The guy measuring the paint will know how safe you can go and whether you can cut back safely without going through the clear coat. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
   
3. Cut the sandpaper so you are able to wrap it around the sanding block and hold it with your hand so it doesn’t slide. (pic) Do it for each type grit sandpaper
   

1. Soak the sandpaper in the water for 10 mins until the sandpaper curls in a roll (this is normal) The longer you soak it, the better the sandpaper will work at getting the particles out and washing it away as you sand.
   
2. Wash your car if you haven’t already and dry it.
   
3. Mask around the areas you don’t want to sand or be accidently touched by the sandpaper/buffer with the blue tape.
   
4. Make sure you are in a comfortable position and start with the 2000 grit wet and dry on the orange peel/scratched part of the paint. U will start to see a milky residual. This is the clear coat coming off the car. Go easy if you aren’t really confident and use a rag to dry the area and u will see that the orange peel start to disappear. KEEP THE AREA LUBRICATED WITH WATER!
   

As someone said to me when I was sanding back my car during respray: “NO SHINE” No shine means that: When there is no shine, it means that the paint is flat. It should have a matt appearance. This is when you should STOP. Just to be safe, I used the 2000 grit until there was little shine left and then started the finer 2500 grit to take out the remaining shine. This makes sure that I only need to take off as much as I need before going to the 3000 grit and final polish stage.

1. Move on with the 2500 grit and start in the opposite direction to where you sanded with the 2000 grit. This makes it easier to take out the scratches that you did with the 2000 grit. Keep it lubricated like the other sandpaper.
   
2. Move on to the 3000 grit. Go around in circles this time. As the sandpaper is very fine it will hardly take anything off the paint if you don’t use some pressure. Work it in firmly but still take care as like any sandpaper it can still go through the clear coat if you aren’t careful!
   

This is how the surface should look like now

You can see how the surface is beginning to show the shine but it’s going to take a rotary buffer to take all the scratches out. Take care on the edges as the paint is thinner than the flat surfaces. I tend to use my thumb to lightly sand the edge.

1. Now take the rotary buffer and pay attention to the speed control (pic)
   

1. Take the yellow compounding and cutting pad and stick it on the Velcro pad on the rotary buffer. If its brand new, soak it in water first before using it for the first time. This conditions the pad so the pad lasts longer. Then put it on the rotary and spin it at speed 3 (~1500RPM) for 5 seconds.
   

1. Shake the 02B well and place 6 dots size of a M&M chocolate on the higher points of the waffle pad. But place them around in the middle. Place it on the edges and you will get splatter. Not really a problem if you want to spend more time cleaning J
   

1. MAKE SURE THE ROTARY SPEED IS SET ON THE LOWEST SPEED FIRST. Place it on the sanded part and begin buffing. One hand controlling the trigger and one on the handle to control the buffer so it doesn’t go out of control or hop. Keeping the pad flat on the surface and not leaning towards the edges. This enables the pad to uniformly spread the polish over the surface. Spread it over around 30cm x 30cm area. Don’t use pressure while buffing. Let the machine do its work. When you have spread it jump up to speed 2 (~900RPM) and move the buffer around the surface painted area. Once you pass all areas 1 TIME put the speed to 3 and start moving at a slow but steady rate NOT STAYING IN ONE PLACE FOR MORE THAN 3 SECONDS. You burn the paint, it’s not my fault. Take care on the edges of the paint as it’s thinner than the paint on a flat surface. Once you pass over the area 2 TIMES, you should see the polish start to become more clear and show transparency. This is the polish breaking down and the machine will have produced enough heat to start cutting the paint back. Now lift off the machine from the area and turn it off. DO NOT TURN OFF THE MACHINE WHILST STILL ON THE PAINT. Touch the area.
   

You should be able to touch it for 5 seconds without it being too hot. Use a clean terry towel to buff off the excess. If you still see scratches like this (was hard to see on the Corolla so I used my Mrs Pulsar as an example)

You need to polish it again with the rotary. If it still doesn’t buff out then you have use the 3000 grit sandpaper to sand the scratch out again and then buff it out using the same technique above again Until its gone. After cutting the paint should look like this (pic)

See the swirls? Don’t jump off the bridge. That’s when the black finishing waffle pad comes in. If brand new soak it in water like the yellow pad and rotate it on the rotary to dry it out. Dab the area in the centre with the Scratch X same as the 02B on the yellow pad and begin to work it in the same way as you did with the yellow pad with 02B. Then with another clean terry towel wipe the excess off. Now all the swirls will be gone and you are left with a clean and flat looking paint job.

[Kenshin X]

14. Hand apply your favourite wax and buff it off and sit back and have a beer! :P

Before

After

Before

After

Some more finished pics

Bonnet

HAPPY DETAILING! :)

[stock]

where did you get 3000 grade sandpaper from? or even 2500?

[jeffy]

where did you get 3000 grade sandpaper from? or even 2500?

shouldn't they have some at like, bunnings or masters ?

[Kenshin X]

i got the 3000 grit from autobahn at the start. but they didnt stock it no more, so i had to order them from england (made in germany) the 2500 i got from a local shop here in sunshine north :) bunnings and masters have only up to 1200 grit wet/dry. even most car auto paint shops only stock 2000 grit.

[jeffy]

wow really ? didnt know that,

reckon olarenshaws stock the 3000 ?

[Kenshin X]

no they stock 2000 the max